Preserving the future, educating to beauty
Palestine/JerichoCONTEXT & OBJECTIVE
Jericho is the oldest city in Palestine located near the Jordan River. Although it was not directly on the road that connects Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus visited it a couple of times. In Jericho we emember the episode of Zacchaeus, who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus passing by. For centuries, the Franciscan friars of the parish of Jericho have been at the side of needy families, not only as spiritual guides, but also through concrete support to the poorest, in particular taking care of the education of many children and young people.
In Jericho we regularly support the training of young mosaicists at the Mosaic Center founded by Father Michele Piccirillo, to guarantee a future for the young people of the city and preserve the cultural heritage of the area. We have also started Italian and English courses for young people, especially for those who work in the cultural and artistic fields.
ACTIVITIES
- Training courses and cultural activities for young people
- Italian and English courses
- Conservation of cultural heritage
BENEFICIARIES
- Young mosaicists through job creation
- Local people active in cultural and social activities
- Pilgrims
Building people: story the architect Osama Hamdan

“I finished my specialization in architecture in 1994, in Italy. So I decided to come back here to rebuild the country. ” This is the beginning of the story of Osama Hamdan, Palestinian, born in 1960. Nothing more and nothing less: a degree in architecture in Italy and hisreturn home, in Jerusalem, to help out in reebuilding the society. A normal incipit, of a common story, but Osama’s life is everything but this. His expertise in enhanement of the cultural and natural heritage, and the strong desire to “change the world, change things” are only the basic elements of that recipe that will then be his life. “When we returned, my wife Clara and I, we had nothing”, says Osama “not even a table to to sit at for dinner. I worked on some projects related to the Palestinian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. It wasn’t easy then, but there were really a lot of opportunities, there was a lot of work and we were all very hopeful. Above all, the desire to change society was great and this gave me, gave us strength”. In a short time, Osama’s great professionalism led him to deal with increasingly demanding projects. It was then that he had his first great intuition: “ I realized that to build society I had to build people first. There was a lot of incompetence, and little awareness of the value of the heritage we have… So I started to grow specialists “.
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